Ontario minister may need to cozy up to other levels of government if he wants to see $4.9B LRT completed

Glen Murray sets $4.9B Eglinton Crosstown LRT in motion

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It was a dreamy photo op for any politician. Glen Murray, Ontario’s minister of transportation, stood resplendent in a hardhat and reflective orange safety vest, in a gaping hole at Eglinton Avenue and Black Creek Drive, in front of a tunnel boring machine, christened “Dennis.” The machine began Wednesday excavating the glacial till for the Eglinton Crosstown light-rail line, which, when it opens in 2020, will stretch 19 kilometres and count 25 stations.

Why is the tunnel boring machine named Dennis?

Metrolinx announced Wednesday the names of the four tunnel boring machines that will be used for the Eglinton-Scarborough crosstown project.

“The winning names are Dennis and Lea, representing the Mount Dennis and Leaside neighbourhoods, and Don and Humber, representing the rivers,” Metrolinx said in a statement.

The Ontario transportation agency held the naming contest at the end of last year. The most popular submissions were shortlisted, and the public had the opportunity to vote for their favourite name.

Jason Paris came up with the names Dennis and Lea, and Graham Gersdorff, Val Dodge and Reiner Kravis named the Don and Humber machines.

Dennis and Lea will dig eastward, starting at Black Creek Drive, while Don and Humber will dig westward from Leslie Street. The machines are expected to hollow out about 15 metres of tunnel per day and the project should be completed by 2020.

The completed Crosstown light-rail line will be 19 kilometres long, Metrolinx said.

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“Our government is moving forward with the largest transit investment in a generation,” the minister said.

Truly, it was a day for celebration. But then Mr. Murray struck an oddly partisan tone.

The minister noted that it is almost 18 years to the day since the Tory government, in 1995, sent bulldozers to a tunnel dug for an Eglinton subway train and filled in the hole.

“There is a little bit of irony and fun in finally getting back to where we were,” Mr. Murray said. “And we hope we never see bulldozers again.”

Mr. Murray then took to Twitter to take some swipes at former Tory MPPs, now in the federal government in Ottawa.

“18 yrs after Harris, Hudak & Flaherty PCs buried the 1st Eglinton subway. @Kathleen_Wynne Liberals started boring the tunnels again,” Mr. Murray typed, continuing, “No surprise the former PC team now entrenched in Ottawa is not contributing a single cent to the Eglinton line.” He added, “City of Toronto is not putting funds into the Eglinton Crosstown Line.”

Come to think about it, Ontario did look lonely up there on the podium. A $4.9-billion project, to knit Etobicoke to Scarborough, really does need some help from other governments. Mr. Murray would do better to build bridges than to take shots.

He could, for example, have invited MPs, councillors, heck even Mayor Rob Ford, to his celebration. His spokesman, Patrick Searle, told me, “Normally people who pay for a project are invited. Because this project is fully funded by the provincial government, municipal officials were not invited.”

We asked Bruce McCuaig, chief executive of Metrolinx, what guarantee we have that Ontario will complete this rapid transit project on Eglinton.

“We are too far down the path with this project,” Mr. McCuaig replied. “The vehicles are on order, and we are in a procurement process for the station design. The momentum on this project is very visible and accelerating.”

Quite true. That said, the province’s problem, as in 1995, is cash. Ontario projects a deficit next year of $11.7-billion.

Some of that red ink relates to this job. Metrolinx has “spent about $415-million on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT so far,” Malon Edwards said. That’s before they even dig the tunnel. Transit megaprojects are money pits, and should the Tories win the next provincial election, they could be tempted to halt this project, being built to serve people who never vote for them anyway.

Still, let’s end on an upbeat note.

On the site I met Joe Dombrowski from Obayashi Corp., a construction giant that is lead partner, with Kenny Construction, Kenaidan and Technicore Underground, in building the Eglinton line. Mr. Dombrowski is commuting right now from Pittsburgh, where Obayashi recently completed a subway under the Allegheny River, vastly improving circulation in Pittsburgh, he said, “especially on game days for the Pirates or Steelers or Penguins.” In downtown Pittsburgh subway users ride for free.

“Now, everybody in our city loves this,” Mr. Dombrowski said. “In the end you will have something that will transform your city. You have to think of your children and your children’s children.”

For the sake of those yet to be born, I hope Mr. Murray can learn to make friends, and make his tunnel vision come true.